Previously

CHULA VISTA  The compensation for Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox is greater than that of mayors in San Jose, Sacramento, Long Beach, Fresno and San Diego.

The South Bay city is the state’s 14th largest, with a population of 243,000, but Cox has the fourth-highest mayoral compensation in the state.

Cox’s $154,105 compensation in 2009, including salary and benefits, was topped only by the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, all of whom serve as their city’s CEO in a “strong mayor” form of government. Cox was the state’s top-paid mayor in a community with a city manager as top administrator.

Cox’s salary is not new, but its ranking in the state came to light during an ongoing analysis by The Watchdog of public compensation across the county.

Cox, who was elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2010, said she does not control her salary. Voters approved a measure in 2000 that set the mayor’s salary at 66 percent of a Superior Court judge’s pay. The measure passed with 50.7 percent of the vote.

David Danciu, president of Crossroads II, a local group that concerns itself with development issues in the city, called the salary excessive.

“I think her pay should be looked at by some kind of salary commission,” Danciu said. “There’s no reason she should be making more than the mayor of San Jose or San Diego.”

The information on mayoral salaries comes from a database on the State Controller’s website that lists pay and benefits for all public employees for the 2009 calendar year, a resource launched in response to a scandal over excessive pay in the city of Bell.

Cox’s compensation of $154,105 in 2009 included $118,800 in salary, $12,000 in auto allowance, $9,449 for her pension and $13,856 in medical benefits, according to the database. In 2010, she agreed to forego the pension contribution along with other employees.

Chula Vista’s mayor position is considered full time. Duties include serving as the city’s official representative at political and ceremonial functions, interpreting policies and programs for city residents, signing legal documents, and running City Council meetings.

Cox said she often works more than 12-hour days and does not get paid overtime.

As a strong mayor, Sanders is the chief administrator and in charge of the budget for the state’s second-largest city. Sanders earned $100,464 as a base salary and $10,191 in health care benefits in 2009. The retired police chief did not re-enter the city’s pension system as mayor.

Since 2009, Sanders has taken a 6 percent pay cut, and now earns a base salary of $94,074.